Death and the Powers is a new opera by composer Tod Machover and developed at the MIT Media Lab, in collaboration with the American Repertory Theater and Chicago Opera Theater. It is a one-act, full evening work that tells the story of Simon Powers, a successful and powerful businessman and inventor, who wants to go beyond the bounds of humanity. Reaching the end of his life, Powers faces the question of his legacy: “When I die, what remains? What will I leave behind? What can I control? What can I perpetuate?” He is now conducting the last experiment of his life, passing from one form of existence to another in an effort to project himself into the future. Whether or not he is actually alive is a question. Simon Powers is himself now a System. His family, friends and associates must decide what this means, how it affects them, and whether to follow.
Read more:
- Machover’s “robot opera” to kick off Chicago Opera Theater season (Chicago Classical Review, March 27, 2011)
- MIT Robots Take Stage In New Opera (PCWorld, March 21, 2011)
- Death and the Powers: The robots' opera (NewScientist, March 21, 2011)
- Second Life: Death and the Powers from ART
- DEATH AND THE POWERS: The Robots' Opera (MIT Admissions website, March 17, 2011)
- Preview: Love and Robots in Death and the Powers: The Robots' Opera (The Boston Phoenix, March 16, 2011)
- Interview: Tod Machover, creator of The Death and the Powers (Time Out Boston, March 15, 2011)
- Machover, Touching with Sound (The Boston Musical Intelligencer, March 15, 2011)
- Tod Machover on BBC's The Strand (March 13, 2011) [Machover portion is Chapter 3]
- Powered up and programmed to perform (Boston Globe, March 13, 2011)
- Robotic and music combo gives audience something new (Variety, March 12, 2011)
- High-Tech Opera Features Robots as Stars (NPR Science Friday, March 11, 2011)
- Robot Opera and Immortality (WBUR's On Point, March 7, 2011)
- A thoroughly modern opera (Christian Science Monitor, March 4, 2011)
- Guitar Hero Goes to the Opera (The Atlantic, April 2011)
(The Boston Globe, March 21, 2011)
